Floated water-meadows in Norfolk: a misplaced innovation

While the unportance of irrigated meadows in Wessex and the West Country has long been appreciated, their development outside this area has received little attention. This article shows that water-meadows were almost unknown in eastern England before the late eighteenth century. A nmnber of extensive systems were then established, mainly by men associated with improving aristocratic landlords like Thomas William Coke. Most of these systems were, however, abandoned at a relatively early date. The reasons why the technique of floating was adopted in this late and limited way outside its western heartland are discussed, together with some of the implications this has for our understanding of the spread of innovations during the period of the 'Agricultural Revolution'.